About Me

If I can just give to the world more than I take from it, I will be a very happy man. For there is no greater joy in life than to give.
Motto : Live, Laugh and Love.
You can follow me on Twitter too . My handle is @Raja_Sw.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

For
somebody who’s pretty crazy about old Hindi film songs, I’ve never posted a
list here on any theme. I’ve only ever posted random songs as and when I felt
like discussing them. And even these have been very occasional postings.

But I do read
a few film blogs and they often have these “lists” – songs of a particular
music director, songs in village fairs, songs in horse-driven carriages and so
on. I’ve always enjoyed these “list”posts – and added my bit in the comments
sections of the blogs.

Today I
felt like putting out a list of my own out there. This is my first "list" – so please bear
with me if it does not quite cut “list” standards. Much like others place
constraints on their lists, I have placed some on mine too. I find it more fun
to make a list under constraints – while it may make the job more difficult on
one hand, it actually may help in the song elimination process on the other.

My list is
a list of soft, soulful, romantic songs where a male character is talking about
or talking to a female character, describing her beauty and/or how much he
loves her. In other words, something I know nothing about. ;-)

I know it sounds quite complicated but I needed to do this to narrow down the type of song
I am considering here. Romantic songs come a dime a dozen in Hindi films, so I had
to define some boundaries around them upfront. This means a song like “ehsaan
tera hoga mujh par” (Junglee) does NOT make the cut. In fact, no “sad” song makes
the cut.

Again, what’s
soft, soulful and romantic can be a matter of debate. I used a simple rule for
myself – would this be a song I’d consider singing to my love in my attempt to
win her over? (Ok, ok, I know that ship sailed a long time ago ;-) but hey,
this is just a lab experiment. J). If yes, then it qualifies to be
considered.

Poetry has
always been an integral part of my love for Hindi songs, so the songs I’ve
picked had to be pretty high on the lyrics content. They didn’t need to use
stylish or fancy Urdu words (which, btw, I absolutely love) but they needed to have something interesting in
their lyrics. They needed to "talk" to me. I do recognize though that this is another subjective demand I’ve placed on my
list.

Now, the
clear-cut, indisputable constraints.

I’m
limiting my list to one song per singer. That’s a massive tying of hands when
you consider the number and quality of songs that get excluded just because ONE
Kishore or Rafi song got picked. But that’s life. Ok, it isn’t but if life’s a
bitch, so’s my list.

To add to
the fun, I’ve decided to limit it to ONE song per music director. Much like the
above singer restriction, that puts many beautiful songs out there in the cold
(and my heart breaks at the thought) but I’m steeling myself.

I must be
some sort of masochist (or maybe being a Tamil Iyer works just as well) because I wasn’t even satisfied with this level of tying of hands. I decided that I would restrict my songs to one-song-per-actor. So,
Rajesh Khanna, for all his plethora of romantic songs, has no bigger bite at
the apple than, say, a Raj Babbar.

And guess
what? To make it even more interesting (or restrictive), I thought I’d limit it
to one song per actress. So even favourites like Waheeda and Nutan are not
favourites as far as this list is concerned.

Finally I
added just one more restriction. Not that I have anything against female
singers, but this would be an all-male list. If only because of the theme – it is
the male praising the female, so even if the female so much as utters one word,
the song is disqualified. Also, it would be a male solo, so duets like “huzoor
is qadar bhi na ithra ke chaliye” are not allowed.

That’s it.
I could have thought up a few more restrictions on myself but I thought this is
a decent set to start with. To summarise:

1.Soft, soulful, romantic song where the male
character is describing the female character’s beauty or telling her how much
he loves her

2.High on quality of lyrics (subjective call, of
course)

3.One song per singer

4.One song per music director

5.One song per actor

6.One song per actress

7.Only male solos

I have also
chosen to stay with a standard restriction that most impose on their lists –
one song per film. With the thousands of films out there, it seems extremely
unfair if one film were to grab more than one slot in a ten-slot list.

The restrictions
I have NOT imposed on myself (and I’ve seen on other lists) are (a) that I
should have seen the movie and (b) period boundaries. My songs cover every
decade from the 1950s to the 1990s.

I will
admit, not much thought has gone into this list. In fact, this list is a result
of my having a comfortable seat in a near-empty AC bus today enroute to another
part of town. I had a piece of paper – and a pen – with me. Since it was Valentine’s
Day, my thoughts meandered in the direction of romantic songs. One thing led to another and soon I had ten songs on my list, satisfying these conditions. (The main reason there's no restriction of "one song per lyricist" is, on the bus journey I was very confident of singer/actor/actress/music composer but not so sure about the lyricist for each song. And I got my list pretty much ready on the bus journey itself).

Please let
me know what you think of the list. And of course, your own suggestions are
most welcome. For many songs, I could myself think of alternatives – but the
constraints helped in the selection/elimination process.

Ok, that
was a LONG build-up (hey, this is my first list, so cut me some slack!) but let’s
get down to the business end of this post. The songs are in chronological
order.

Ok, here the song is not being sung to a female character as such, it is being sung to and about a person's homeland. This is a song I really , really, REALLY, love. It is soft, it is soulful, it
is romantic (in the sense of a person’s love for his country), it has lovely
lyrics, it has everything. So when I was thinking of a Manna Dey song, this
immediately came to mind. And however hard I tried to think of another one (I
did think of “kaun aaya” (Dekh Kabira Roya) and “ae meri zohra jabeen” (Waqt)
but this Kabuliwala song beats them, in my opinion. When I listen to “sab se pyaari subah teri, sab se rangeen teri shaam, tujh pe dil qurbaan” (and the way Manna Dey has sung this) its effect on me cannot be described. Just to clarify, this song isn't being sung for India, it's being sung for his home country, Afghanistan. Actually it doesn't matter - at a generic level, it's a song of love for one's country.

So maybe I’m cheating a bit here
(and please feel free to find me another Manna Dey song that could replace this
one) but I’m sticking with this for now.

(EDIT: One of my friends, Ava, has come up with a Manna Dey romantic song that satisfies all my criteria. Not only is it is a lovely song, it is also more in line with the theme of this post than the song I picked above. I am therefore including it in this blogpost as an additional song (not removing "aye mere pyar vatan" - don't have the heart to!). The fact that Madan Mohan is the composer of this song delights me - I don't need to feel that guilt anymore for not finding a slot for him earlier. (I really wanted to have "main nigaahen tere chehre se" in here but my own rules worked against me on that one)).

This is a song
I used to like a lot before I saw the movie. And then, I really fell in love
with it. Before I saw the movie I had imagined this to be a serious, sad song
where the hero is venting out his frustration at his failed love – the lyrics
would suggest as much. But I discovered I was completely wrong – it is a
light-hearted song, sung early in the movie at Nutan’s birthday party (at least I think it was her birthday party). Raj Kapoor
has only recently met Nutan and he is flirting with her. And she is responding
in her inimitable style.

Ah, Nutan! This
was the movie which made me fall madly in love with her (this, and Tere Ghar Ke
Saamne and Paying Guest, all of which I saw within a week of each other). I SO
love Nutan when she is not in her “mera pati mera devta hai” roles – and she is
lovely in this film. I cannot have a romantic songs list without a Nutan number
in it, so this is it. And can I see myself singing this song? Sure I can! Now to find a Nutan to sing it to. ;-) Or a Madhubala or Waheeda. ;-)

This is
another song that I consider very high on the soft, romantic scale – and even Biswajeet
cannot spoil it for me. :-) I was toying
between this and “zara nazron se keh do ji” (Bees Saal Baad) but I thought
Waheeda Rehman is better picturised here,
so this song won it.

In fact, though this list is an all-male list, since the
object of affection is female, she does play a role in influencing my choice of
song. The very presence of Waheeda is good
enough reason for me to pick a song. Or a movie.

Some may be
surprised that I picked this as my Rajesh Khanna romantic song pick. But I
love, love, love everything about this song – and while it also means no other
Rafi saab song gets picked, I just could not bring myself NOT to pick this one.
Look at it – it’s just perfect. Rajesh Khanna is at his buttoned-kurta best,
his mannerisms are just about right, not OTT (those were still early days for
him), Leena Chandavarkar is oh-so-sweet, the typically Muslim setting is just
beautiful – and the lovely lyrics by Anand Bakshi are beautifully given shape
by LP. What’s not to love?

So move
aside “o mere dil ke chain”, this one deserves its place in the sun. It’s been
behind a chilman of its own for way too long.

I think I
may just have escaped the censure that was awaiting me all this while for being
more than halfway down my list and not coming up with this one. For this is for
many THE most iconic romantic song of them all. And I’m not putting this up
here just to conform (heaven knows I’m no conformist!) – I really, really love
this song. I know I say this about every song but I can’t help it.

This song
has everything I’m looking for – soft, soulful lyrics, wonderfully composed by
K-A and sung as only Kishore Kumar could. I’ve sung this song a million times –
this is my favourite travel-cum-loneliness song, I tend to sing it A LOT. Years
ago, when I would return from work by local train in Mumbai (Bombay) at the
late hours of 1.30 or 2.00 a.m, this song would give me company. Everything about
it is just perfect!

I remember
that by the time 1980 came around, Hindi movies had begun to take a different
path altogether. Those were the days of big-budget multi-starrers. Or Amitabh
Bachchan towering over all others. Or South Indian producers coming back into
Hindi films on the back of Jeetendra and Rekha. Or it was disco. In all this, there was the
occasional song – which had none of these frills - that stood out purely on the strength of its melody.

One such
song was “Tu is tarah”. The first time I heard it, I could not recognize the
voice (Manhar). All I knew was that I fell madly in love with it. (Yes, I do
tend to fall madly in love with a lot of things quite often J).
It was a reasonably popular song (and had three versions of it), so it would
play on radio quite often. Those were the days before the internet, so you
couldn’t just google or youtube it. I used to wait to listen to this song.

As with all
my other songs here, the lyrics of this song are just beautiful. I can listen to
this song again and again (yes, I’ve listened to this too a million times) and
never get bored. In a list of soulful, romantic songs, this song can proudly
claim its place in my top-10 list.

This song
may come as a surprise for many but in a film with superhit songs, this is
the one which is most often forgotten. I have always liked this song and I think it deserves
to be better-known. And since I did not set any period constraints for my list –
and this song satisfies all my required criteria – I have no qualms throwing it
in here.

The lyrics are actually quite good to listen to – I remember they
impressed me quite a bit when I first heard the song. “Hatheli pe tumhaara naam,
likhte hain mitaate hain, tum hi se pyar karte hain, tum hi se hi kyon
chhupaate hain”. The travails of a guy unable to confess his love to the girl
he loves. Been there, done that. (No, just kidding! ;-)). Writing on hatheli (palm) and all that. Sheesh! :-) Nice lyrics though.

(I find sites where this song is attributed to Pankaj Udhas whereas I always thought this was sung by Vinod Rathod. And not just in the film but also playback. Can somebody please clarify the situation? Maybe the Pankaj Udhas version was a non-film version?)

Another
song from the 1990s that stands out in a decade known more for catchy music than
lilting, romantic melodies. But when you get Jagjit Singh, you know you are
going to get sanity in the midst of any insanity that’s happening all around
him. This is a delightful romantic number, with fun picturisation on a playful Aamir
Khan and Sonali Bendre. I never tire of watching it – and since it meets all my criteria - I
thought it brings up very nicely the end of my list. Am very happy to have
Jagjit Singh on my list – somehow a list of supposedly “soulful” songs without
a Jagjit number in it doesn’t quite seem right.

So how did
you like my list? I thoroughly enjoyed making it – though I must admit there
were times when I wished I’d relax my rules just a little bit. (Not having “khilte
hain gul yahaan” or "jeevan se bhari teri aankhen" because Kishore was already “taken”, for example. Or "main nigaahen" because Rafi was "taken".) And it
seems like sacrilege to not have even one song of Naushad, SD Burman, Shankar
Jaikishen, Madan Mohan, OP Nayyar or RD Burman. But that’s how it turned out
for me and, all things considered, I’m glad I didn’t break the rules – and yet managed to come up with
ten songs that I’m quite happy with.

Let me know
what songs you’d have liked to have in your list. Of course my constraints don’t
apply to you, so feel free to enrich this post with your suggestions.